Monday April 26th, 2010 - Beautiful, Seductive, Captivating….and Expensive…Vancouver

Vancouver is beautiful, mesmerizing and…the most expensive place in all of Canada to live. The city has roared back from the recession and home prices are back to pre-recession rates and in some cases have left those pre-2009 prices in the real estate market’s rear view mirror.

That’s great if you already own a home that isn’t mortgaged to the hilt, but not such a good thing if you are trying to get into the market. It’s also not so great if the market takes a sudden dive and you are left owing more money than your home is actually worth.

Some fear that there will be a slowdown later in the year when the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) takes effect and when mortgage rates rise. The mortgage interest rates have already started inching up and the stricter mortgage rules went into effect on April 19th.

Some examples of Vancouver’s meteoric housing prices include North Vancouver, a bargain actually at an average price for a detached home of $927,122. If you want to live in West Vancouver then you would need to shell out $1,440,747 for the same home. The most expensive prices are in Vancouver’s west end where you would have to empty your wallet of $1,656,986 for that same detached home.

The average Vancouver family spends 68 percent of their average disposable income on their homes. Compare that to Canada’s largest population centre, Toronto where 44 percent goes to housing, or even Calgary where the figure is 35 percent.

People from across Canada come to Vancouver, perhaps on vacation, perhaps with the intent of relocating. They are inevitably seduced by the snow capped mountains and the blue ocean waters that surround this very modern metropolis. To be honest, the idea of living somewhere that doesn’t have 40 below winters and truckloads of snow (normally) is appealing. But buying a home in an area where that home doesn’t cost an arm and a leg may have a certain appeal of its own. Maybe it's time to seriously consider buying a home in Burnaby instead?